Eye Of The Storm
by Medie
Summary: Mulder entrusted her safety to him...he's determined never to let them down. (AU - futurefic. Skinner & Samantha)


Title: As The Seasons Fandom: Star Trek: TOS Pairing: Pike/Other Spoilers: None Author's Note: This story was inspired by the Audrid Dax section of "The Lives of Dax" wherein Chris Pike is inadvertantly exposed to the secret of the Trill. The idea occured to me, if Pike hadn't been in his accident...it might have been Trill he ended up on.  
Summary: Title: Eye Of The Storm Author: M.  
Rating: PG13 Keywords: Skinner/Samantha, Futurefic. AU Fandom: X-Files Spoilers: None Disclaimer: Don't own them.  
Summary: Mulder entrusted her safety to him...he's determined never to let them down.  
Note: Another submissoin for the Rare Pairing (Het and Slash) Challenge  
  
"Eye Of The Storm"  
by M.  
-  
She was asleep on the couch when he got home, a light afghan draped over her body, hiding the pregnancy which kept her virtual prisoner in their little home. He stopped by her side, looking down at her as she sighed in her sleep. With a faint smile, he leaned over her, tucking the brightly colored blanket closer about her body. Before he stood to shrug out of his overcoat, he brushed a kiss over her forehead.  
  
Returning the coat to its peg by the door, Walter Skinner looked out at the stormy Alaskan night. The weather was getting worse and they weren't going anywhere for a while. A couple of days at least. That was all right. They couldn't get out but no one else could get in. Their home wasn't visible from the road in the summer. With the snow piling up, they were nearly perfectly hidden.  
  
He stepped out of his work boots, leaving them melting snow on the mat, and went to the laptop in the corner. Emails were waiting for him. Reports from Doggett and the others. Each one checking in. Each one confirming they were still alive. Until he sat down and read each and every message, he couldn't quite relinquish the weight on his chest. The pressure which returned every night he sat down and turned the computer on.  
  
The days when they were agents under his supervision had long since passed but the responsibility for their safety still lingered with him. Something he'd never quite been able to let go of.  
  
"Walter?"  
  
A glance over his shoulder confirmed he'd heard her say his name. She was awake and looking at him. He quickly skimmed the last of the emails then closed down the computer once more. "Hey, sweetheart."  
  
The afghan slipped to the floor unnoticed as she eased off the couch and met him in the center of the room. Even with her in the late stages of pregnancy, body rounded and awkward, she still fit easily into his embrace, still felt so very small to him. "How long have you been home?"  
  
It never failed to stand out to him. How easy she was with that word. Home. She quickly applied it to each and every place they had lived in over the time they'd been in hiding. But, he supposed, she'd had to learn to do so. It had been a very long time since Samantha Mulder had occupied a place that most would consider home.  
  
"Not long." He smiled, resting his thumb in the cleft of her chin as he tilted her face up gently for a kiss. "Only a few minutes."  
  
"You should have woken me." Samantha scolded without anger.  
  
"You need your rest." He reminded gently. "It's getting close."  
  
She looked down to where their child grew within her, a smile automatically coming to her lips. "It will be soon." She agreed quietly. "But we have some time left."  
  
He didn't ask her how she knew that. Samantha knew a lot of things she shouldn't necessarily know. A holdover from the experiments she'd endured over her life. Experiments which, she'd assured him, would have no adverse affects on the baby. Walter had not missed the fact she'd been very careful not to say there would be no affects at all. An omission which could not be accidental. She was not a woman given to mis-speaking. She chose her words carefully and precisely. What Samantha meant to say was exactly what she did say. It was a trait he'd come to value in her. It was a refined version of that which he'd seen in her brother. Both spoke honestly and from the heart but Samantha seemed to weigh her words more carefully than Fox but her words were no less truthful. When there was very little left in life, the truth became everything, and to both Mulder siblings, that was exactly what it was. Everything.  
  
He brushed a curl away from her face. "How are you feeling?"  
  
"Tired." She admitted. "But that has become a state of being for me. It isn't as if I did not expect it. Life takes strength to grow. Mine will return when the child is born." Thus said, she looked at the computer then at him. "The others?"  
  
"Alive." He reported, his relief feeding hers as Samantha's smile returned. "Mulder's going to try and get Scully up here for the birth. It's a risk but, he doesn't want us taking chances with any of the locals. He and Doggett are working on a plan for it now. They'll be ready soon."  
  
She nodded then rested her head against his chest. "It will be good to see them again."  
  
It wasn't fair she had to live this way. After all the years she'd been separated from her brother, their reunion had lasted but a few short days and visits now had to be sporadic and very, very brief. Yet, never had she complained. It wore on her, took its toll emotionally, but Samantha bore it as silently as she could. She always had.  
  
When she'd been found by Doggett and Reyes, Samantha had only just returned to Earth and had been completely unaware of the events which had unfolded on her homeworld much less within her own family. She'd been so very curious to find out and thus, Walter Skinner's first introduction to the real Samantha had been when he'd walked in to Doggett's home to tell her everything. To, in effect, destroy the beliefs which had fueled her during her abduction. Through the tests, the Change, the escape...  
  
That the family she'd thought had been waiting for her had been shattered years prior and the only surviving member of her family left, her brother, was on the run from the very men responsible for her abduction.  
  
After being the one to tell her this, it was Skinner who took charge of her while Doggett tried to contact Mulder to tell him of her return. It was Skinner who held her as she cried in the night. Tears falling for the life her family had been denied. The life she'd been denied. His hands which had caught the tears and his voice which had tried to soothe the pain.  
  
Those tears, those words, and those moments had been the foundation for the connection that had grown between them. The connection which had convinced Mulder that it was safe to entrust his sister's welfare to a man who he'd once thought traitor to his own race. Trusting him without ever once regretting the decision.  
  
The faith that both Mulders had placed in him had given Walter a determination to never let either one down. He loved her with a fierceness that surprised even him and protected her with everything he had. Even knowing that she'd become as hunted as her brother. He refused to leave her side. The life they had built was not an easy one but it was theirs...  
  
"It will be." He agreed, tucking her head beneath his chin and covering her hand over the spot where their child rested. It would be good to see them again. Too much time had passed since they'd last risked a visit. "Do they have enough time?"  
  
Samantha was quiet for a long moment as if taking stock of her body. "Yes. It will be close," she answered finally, "but we have time." He didn't need to see her face to know she was smiling as she added, "Fox will make it. He won't miss this. Not for anything. There's still time...he will make it."  
  
He would...and, just maybe, so would they.  
  
Finis 


End file.
